The invention relates to a gas-discharge display device comprising a gas-filled, gas-tight enclosure in which an insulating matrix member, in the form of an insulating plate, divides the housing into two chambers. The insulating plate is provided with a plurality of apertures therethrough, arranged in an array of rows and columns corresponding in number to the desired number of image points. A plasma electrode is disposed in one chamber which may be in the form of a surface cathode extending parallel with the insulating matrix plate and provided with a luminescent screen electrode which is disposed in the other chamber. A plurality of anode conductors are disposed on the side of the plate facing the cathode electrode and a plurality of control conductors are disposed on the opposite side of the plate facing the screen electrode, with each of the conductors extending around the edges of the associated apertures, and each of the conductors on one side being associated with a respective row of apertures, and each of the conductors on the other side being associated with a respective column of apertures. The cathode electrode is so disposed that, upon application of appropriate potentials to the respective conductors and cathode electrode, a gas discharge can burn in the discharge chamber, and the luminescent screen electrode is disposed sufficiently close to the adjacent conductors on the matrix member that under such conditions a potential of even a few kV applied to such screen electrode cannot trigger any undesired gas discharge. Devices of this type have become known in various embodiments. For example, a device constructed in this manner and provided with a surface cathode is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 3,956,667.
The display illustrated and described in the above referred to patent operates on the principle of spatially separated electron generation and re-acceleration with the display structure being divided by a suitable conductor matrix, provided with aperttures at its points of intersection, which forms a rear chamber and a front chamber as viewed from an observer's position. A gas-discharge burns in the rear chamber, hereinafter termed the "discharge chamber", while the front chamber is provided with an anode extending thereacross, to which is supplied a potential of a few kV, but as the conductor matrix and the anode are disposed in a relatively very close relationship, a gas discharge cannot be involuntarily produced. In the operation of the panel, plasma electrons are drawn from the discharge chamber, through selectively actuated matrix apertures, into the front chamber hereinafter referred to as the "re-acceleration chamber", where such electrons are accelerated and finally absorbed by the anode. At the point of impact a dot of light is produced, the brilliance of which is dependent upon the magnitude of the actuating signal, which dot appears on a luminescent material placed in front of the anode. With such a two-chamber design, especially when a direct-axis plasma is produced between the surface cathode and any one matrix line (see U.S. Pat. No. 3,956,667), a particularly bright display with infinitely variable brilliance can be obtained. This has had the result of giving fresh impetus to the work, to which particular importance has been attached for some years, with respect to the development of a television picture screen based on gas-discharge.
For the most part, previous two-chamber displays of the prior art, utilizing a control matrix dividing the chamber of the enclosure, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,622,829 and 3,800,186, have involved monochrome display. However, the previously referred to U.S. Pat. No. 3,956,667 has features which may be applicable to multicolor reproduction with the aid of three basic colors. In contrast thereto, an abundance of specific proposals with respect to multicolored reproduction heretofore have been presented in connection with gas-discharge panels of conventional design, but these proposals are not applicable to display devices utilizing a control structure of the type herein involved. If it is desired to provide a colored dot configuration in correspondence to that which is provided in the conventional mask-type picture tube employing phosphor dots, it would be necessary to provide combined pairs of rows of apertures lying one below the other for one picture line and to connect apertures in the control structure lying one below the other by a column conductor, in which case, the adjacent column conductors would lie too close to one another, even if one were to employ extremely narrow conductor paths, and would create capacity levels that would impose extraordinarily heavy loads on the driving stages, as well as create crosstalk.